Background
He was born Edward Oscar Berkmann in Brooklyn, New York in 1914. He grew up in a middle-class Jewish family and attended Cornell University, graduating in 1933, and Columbia University.
He was born Edward Oscar Berkmann in Brooklyn, New York in 1914. He grew up in a middle-class Jewish family and attended Cornell University, graduating in 1933, and Columbia University.
Cornell University.
Before World World War II, he wrote a couple of film scripts and as a journalist for the New York Daily Mirror. During World World War II, he worked as an intelligence officer for the United States Army. After the war, Berkman worked as a foreign correspondent giving the first report of the explosion of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946 on American Broadcasting Company Radio.
He later became an informal adviser to Edward Murrow on foreign affairs and appeared regularly on television programs.